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Sunday, June 29, 2014

This passed under my radar the first time around - the desecration of the Manchester Jewish cemetery involved two separate attacks.

Greater Manchester police confirmed Saturday that they had arrested and questioned two 13-year-old boys after one of the city’s main Jewish cemeteries was seriously desecrated twice within a two-week period.

Besides Nazi slogans and swastikas being drawn on some gravestones, about 40 were toppled over in the two attacks, causing damage estimated in excess of £100,000. It is thought that the Nazi graffiti were daubed some two weeks ago, but was discovered only after police started investigating last weekend’s incident when gravestones were dislodged and damaged.

The Jewish News brings the story, and seems to except British Airways' explanation. In short: the passenger was told the flight had no kosher meals, but the flight manager then 'miraculously' found a meal that was hand-labeled as kosher. The passenger realized it was not a real kosher meal and refused to eat it.

British Airways investigated... and discovered that it's much easier to blame the caterer. As if the caterer would bother hand-labeling meals.

If anybody wants to follow up on this story, I'd be very curious if the caterer in question is even aware that BA has decided to blame him for everything.

Yonatan Bar Magen, an Israeli researcher in the University of Alcalá (next to Madrid) claims the university fired him because he is an Israeli and a Jew.

He also says that the university expected him to bring in "Jewish money". He was constantly asked if he knows any Jews or Israelis who could invest in the university.

When a Jewish businessman visited the university to check out the possibility of investing millions in a certain project, the university's vice-rector and Bar Magen's advisor, José-Antonio Gutiérrez de Mesa, introduced Bar Magen as "my Jewish and Israeli" researcher. But when De Mesa discovered the Bar Magen could not 'seal the deal' for him, he threatened to cut Bar Magen's funding.

Bar Magen was about to publish an article with an Israeli researcher from Bar Ilan University. When De Mesa heard that his name would be added to the article, as Bar Magen's advisor he got very upset. He shouted at Bar Magen: "Don't put my name on articles published by Israeli researchers, we don't need that here" and "You're here to bring in money for the research group, not for any other reason".

The university denies Bar Magen was fired due to antisemitism, and the Israeli Embassy says it cannot prove that was the case.

The synagogue in Norrköping (south of Stockholm) was the target of two attacks in the past two weeks. In both cases stones were thrown through the window.

After the first attack, the police did not respond immediately. The reason being that they classified it as 'vandalism' and not as a 'hate crime', since it did not involve graffiti or other clear political or racist message. However, if the vandalism continues, they might reclassify it.

Arab towns in Israel are filled with swastikas and anti-Jewish graffiti. It does not make news and police do not care. Meanwhile, Israeli police responds with force to anti-Muslim and anti-Arab graffiti.

Perpetrators of such vandalism are treated as terrorists by the legal system, prevented from seeing a lawyer and are not told what they are accused of during interrogation.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

MY FIRST reaction to the swastika someone drew on our house a few days ago was bemusement. Neo-Nazi graffiti seemed anachronistic and incongruous in London, 2014. At least, it felt that way to me. I had an orthodox Jewish upbringing but have since severely lapsed. My wife is not Jewish, which means that—at least by the rules of the orthodox rabbinate—neither are my children. At our house the only visible indicator of my Jewishness is a mezuzah: a small, ritual capsule that Jews affix to their doorposts (ours has a leopard-print design and came from Paris). A mezuzah is a lowest common denominator of Jewish identity; not having one would feel like outright apostasy.

The swastika was scribbled alongside it, which is why I am sure this was not some random scrawl. Mine is not a very Jewish neighbourhood, so it was creepily surprising that anyone passing our house would have sufficient anti-Semitic expertise to recognise the mezuzah.

Back in Bavaria, Patrick Schroeder is driving around downtown Weiden with his former co-host, Martin, a clean-cut 27-year-old computer programmer. Martin is not his real name, but he's already lost his job twice because of his politics, and is worried about jeopardizing his newest position. Both men are complaining about the repression they face on the job market as neo-Nazis — since finishing his training as a salesman, Schroeder has only worked for companies tied to the scene. "We're the new Jews in Germany," he says, "except we don't wear stars."

Belgian diplomat Jean Deboutte has lodged a complain against TV broadcaster VIER after comedian Alex Agnew made Holocaust jokes on the air. On the "Comedy Kings" show aired May 22 Agnew joked about gassing Jews. This is not the first time Agnew is accused of antisemitism.

Deboutte is a former ambassador and chairman of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research. He has been joined by other diplomats and historians.

Michael Freilich, editor of Jewish magazine Joods Actueel, points out that the initiative is being led by non-Jews. He says that when the Jewish community complained in the past about banalizing the Holocaust, they were accused of being too sensitive.

Over the past few months, every week, there are protests across Germany. The protests, which do not attract large crowds, are defined as 'peace protests'. The speakers mostly rail against war, the media and the financial system. But they also bring up conspiracy theories against the Federal Reserve or the Rothschild family.

The protests are called the "Monday protests", though they are sometimes held on Sundays.

I had read some blog articles about the protests a few months ago, but was not sure how to present the topic. The protests themselves are not directly antisemitic, but they are led by anti-Semites, attended by anti-Semites, and are very conspiracy-oriented.

So what we've got is protests against the media and financial systems, by people who believe the Jews control the media and the financial systems. The antisemitic overtones are there.

Let's start with some of the people involved:

The movement was founded by Lars Mährholz, a professional skydiver. He started off the protests by posting this on his Facebook.

One of the movement's speakers is former DJ Ken Jebsen. Jebsen was fired in 2011 after he sent an email saying "I know who invented the Holocaust as PR". That's after ten years of hosting a youth program on public radio RBB and spreading his conspiracy theories, anti-Israel hatred and anti-Semitic connotations. He has said that there should be a Yad Vashem "in Palestine" to "commemorate the Palestinian victims who were murdered through Israel’s occupation", and that the world was subservient to the interests of "radical Zionists." see here for a subtitled clip of Jebsen at the protests.

Another speaker is Jürgen Elsässer. As the Jerusalem Post notes, he exemplifies the new fusion extreme right-wing Nazi-style thinking and radical leftism in Germany. He founded a “people’s front against financial capitalism” in which a mixture of right and left-wing conspiracy theorists and anti- Semites flourish, and he encouraged people to attend the Iran founded al-Quds day.

Jüdische Allgemeine reports that a recent study by sociologists from the University of Berlin found that the protesters were very antisemitic. Almost half (47%) believe that politicians, the stock market and the media dance to the Zionist tune. 24.7% believe that Jews turn to dirty tricks to get what they wanted, more than other people. 13.2% at least partially agree that National Socialism had its good points.

Antifa Koblenz reports an antisemitic incident during the June 9th protest in Koblenz. One of the organizers, Oliver Keil, stood up to read from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He introduced the book saying it was a 'forbidden' and 'antisemitic' book. According to Antifa Koblenz, the reading was received with approval from those present. Keil says he wanted to discuss how a small group can dominate the world, and he wasn't talking about Jews as a people.

Hollywood should "get over" Mel Gibson's antisemitic comments of 2006 because everyone has said similar things in their private moments, Gary Oldman has told Playboy magazine.

In a wide-ranging interview, the Oscar-nominated star of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy cited "political correctness" when asked to comment on Gibson's predicament, and said people should "take a fucking joke".

Added Oldman: "I don't know about Mel. He got drunk and said a few things, but we've all said those things. We're all fucking hypocrites. That's what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word 'nigger' or 'that fucking Jew'? I'm being brutally honest here. It's the hypocrisy of it that drives me crazy."

After defending Alec Baldwin for "calling someone an F-A-G in the street while he's pissed off coming out of his building because they won't leave him alone", Oldman continued to lament Gibson's predicament. "Mel Gibson is in a town that's run by Jews and he said the wrong thing because he's actually bitten the hand that I guess has fed him – and doesn't need to feed him anymore because he's got enough dough," said the British actor. "He's like an outcast, a leper, you know? But some Jewish guy in his office somewhere hasn't turned and said, 'That fucking kraut' or 'Fuck those Germans,' whatever it is? We all hide and try to be so politically correct. That's what gets me. It's just the sheer hypocrisy of everyone, that we all stand on this thing going 'Isn't that shocking?'"

"I am deeply remorseful that comments I recently made in the Playboy Interview were offensive to many Jewish people. Upon reading my comments in print-I see how insensitive they may be, and how they may indeed contribute to the furtherance of a false stereotype," Oldman said in a statement, published by Deadline.

Officers were called following reports of a disturbance at Markfield Recreation Ground on 21 June in which a free community music festival was taking place.

Footage has emerged of the disorder which occurred during the "unprovoked attack", which saw rocks and fireworks being hurled.

A 24-year-old Polish man was stabbed during the incident. He was taken by London Ambulance Service to an east London hospital where his condition is not believed to be serious.

Members of the local Orthodox Jewish community were also targeted by the mob.

One man has also been arrested on suspicion of racially and religiously aggravated common assault, after he allegedly pulled a kippah (skull cap) from a man's head.
No one has been arrested in connection with the stabbing.

CST has received reports of the desecration of a large number of gravestones at Blackley Jewish Cemetery on Rochdale Road, Greater Manchester. Approximately 40 gravestones were pushed over or smashed at some time between 4pm on Sunday 22nd June and 3.30pm on Monday afternoon.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Some organizations, like the Simon Wiesenthal Center, turned this incident into a pogrom committed by teens about to leave on Jihad for Syria.

Jewish news-site Joods Actueel reports that the attack was blown out of proportion. The kids involved were 11-12 years old who threw branches and stones on the bus 'in passing'. The passengers and drivers never felt threatened, and the police quickly caught up with the kids who promised never to do it again.

Swiss network RTS invited people to sit on the stands during their World Cup show. Some of the fans used the opportunity to make the Quenelle.

Massimo Lorenzi, head of the sports department, tweeted an apology, to which Dieudonné, the antisemitic comedian who invented the gesture, replied on Facebook: Does anybody want to explain to him what is the Quenelle?

Rabbi Eliezer Gur-Ari,incumbent Chief Rabbi of Krakow, was interviewed by Arutz 7. Asked about antisemitism the rabbi replied that non Jews don't like Jews and caused a major storm. Both Jewish and non-Jewish organizations came out against him.

Q: The way you dress very clearly shows that you are a rabbi. Have you been the victim of anti-Semitic remarks?

A: "Let's say it clearly. Those who are not a Jew - do not like Jews," he says. "Everyone understands and knows it."

"Here in Krakow there is sympathy for the Jews in general, at least outwardly," he continued. "Sometimes I walk down the street and people greet me. Generally there is respect for a Jewish rabbi; but when they get drunk, then suddenly they spew anti-Semitic remarks. Twice people broke into my house, and I guess because there's a rumor that Jews have lots of money, it brought people specifically to my home."

Gur-Ari denied he ever said non-Jews are all antisemites, but according to JTA, who heard the recording of the interview he did make that statement and added that:

“This shouldn’t come as news, anyone who lives out [of Israel] can tell you the history of non-Jews’ attitude. Of course, there are places where this is more felt, and there are places where this is less felt. In some places sympathy to Jews is more felt; in others, hatred to Jews is more felt.”

Originally, the article stated: "A Facebook page calling for Israel to kill one Palestinian an hour until the three teenagers are returned has received more than 18,000 “likes” since it was set up on 13 June."

It was later fixed to: "A Facebook page calling for Israel to kill one Palestinian terrorist an hour until the three teenagers are returned has received more than 18,000 "likes" since it was set up on 13 June."

In reality, the page actually calls to kill one terrorist an hour.

It must be difficult for the Guardian to find a Hebrew speaker, but when I checked, even Google translate didn't turn "one terrorist" into "one Palestinian".

Via Twitter and alarab24:
Fans of the Algerian team show their support for Algeria and Palestine by giving the three-finger salute. The salute was used by Palestinians in recent days to show their support for the kidnapping of three Israeli teens.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Beppe Grillo, head of the popular euro-skeptic party the Five Star Movement, posted on his Facebook a post against journalist Gad Lerner, after Lerner wrote an article against him. The post simply titled Lerner Journalist of the Day".

What followed was a racist 'lynch' by Grillo's followers, who in various ways called Lerner a Jewish-Zionist-Communist-Freemason shit.

In reply, Gad Lerner tweeted to Grillo asking if he could remove the usual antisemitic diatribe from his post.

After the antisemitic terrorist attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels, Belgian politicians of all stripes expressed their support for the Jewish community and offered more security for Jewish institutions. Talking heads discussed the dangers of hateful, antisemitic Jihadists coming back from Syria.

Wondering where you can find such a hateful, antisemitic Jihadist who came back from fighting a war against Jews? He's writing opinion articles for one of Belgium's most prominent newspapers.

Abou Jahjah a long history of hate against the local Jewish community.

In 2002, Abou Jahjah led race riots in Antwerp. When the Prime Minister considered banning his group, the AEL (Arab European League), Abou Jahjah said he was being demonized by the "Zionist lobby". The AEL has led anti-Jewish riots in Belgium several times, and published antisemitic materials.

In 2006 Abou Jahjah announced he was going to Lebanon, to (re-)join the Hezbollah and fight against Israel.

Belgium announced they will arrest him when he comes back.

And indeed, last year, when he returned from Lebanon, Abou Jahjah was greeted with.... a job offer.

De Standaard, one of Belgium's most respectable newspapers, asked him to write for their newspapers. Because Belgium is an open society, and they want to know what people think. Even if they're antisemitic Jihadists.

Obviously, nobody listens to a Jihadist, right? Nope. Abou Jahjah was chosen as the 4th most influential Belgian of foreign origin by the Magazine "Knack"

In case you think he's changed, Abou Jahjah uses his new platform to continue his attacks on the hated Zionists. In a recent editorial he compared the Syrian Jihadists to Israeli IDF soldiers. And on Twitter he curses people out as Zionists. (But he did condemn the attack on the Jewish museum, so he's A-OK with Belgians).

I don't expect much from Abou Jahjah. I realize he's an antisemitic Muslim who hates Jews and hates Israel. But I do expect more from Belgium, a European country which claims to be enlightened and which claims to care about its Jewish population.

If Belgians want to know why Belgian Jews don't feel safe, maybe they should open a newspaper.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Spanish newspaper El Diario El Mundo published an article titled "The Jewish 'lobby' of Madrid, wedding in Jerusalem". The short notice reported the the wedding of the daughter of a Jewish-Spanish businessman and detailed some of the well-known invitees.

After complaints by the Jewish organization FCJE, the headline was changed to "Wedding of VIPs in Jerusalem".

Via Ido Daniel (@Twitter): Antisemitic inscriptions in a Jerusalem hospital praised the abduction of three Jewish teenagers. The inscriptions included Muslims slogans, swastikas and the words "three Shalits" (Gilad Shalit was a soldier abducted by Hamas).

A Dutch non-profit organization trying to raise awareness on cultural bias against Jewish people wants the national football association KNVB to pay a fine for every match where chants for or against “Jews” can be heard throughout the crowd. The organization, Stichting Bestrijding Antisemitisme (Foundation for the Fight against Anti-Semitism) will ask a court in Utrecht on Friday to fine KNVB €1 million for each instance where the association took no action against antisemitism, reports the Algemeen Dagblad.

(...)

The cup final between PEC Zwolle and Ajax, in which chants from supporters of both teams had the word “Jew” in the lyrics, is part of the reason for the latest summary proceedings.

More: NL Times (and though there's no possible connection between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, the editors of this article decided to illustrate it with an Israeli flag)

Monday, June 16, 2014

German journalist Christoph Hörstel, a zealous supporter of Iran’s regime and Hezbollah and an alleged denier of the Holocaust, was invited to an event at the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp to commemorate the July 20, 1944, attempt to assassinate Hitler by German officers.

German author Tilman Tarach reported on Friday about the slated event on the website of the Berlin-based Jungle World weekly, causing organizers of the Sachsenhausen memorial to cancel Hörstel’s appearance the same day.

(...)

According to telephone information from Sachsenhausen conveyed to Tarach, Hörstel’s appearance was planned as a side event and was not intended as participation in the July 20 commemoration.

- A 14-year old girl returning from Jewish school was assaulted by three girls and one man of African and North African origins. They tried to check whether she was Jewish and when she gave them false information, they threatened to "fuck her race".

- Two siblings met a man who called them "dirty Jews" and "I'm a Nazi, I'm German, long live Hitler. We're going to gas you, he didn't finish the job." The man, described as 40-year old of Mediterranean type also said the Jews are the reason for the crisis and for people being poor.

- At one station a 22-year old North African woman encouraged the aggressor and announced that what he said was the truth. She later started shouting Muslims were the best and physically beat up the Jewish girl.

“I always wore a yarmulke, even in public. For a while I worked at the kosher butcher shop in the Rivierenbuurt neighborhood. I had many anti-Semitic experiences in that area. Dutchmen often cursed or stared at me. A number of times they made a Hitler salute. Moroccan youngsters did that as well.

(...)

There are many Moroccans in Amsterdam. If they see a Moroccan fighting with a Jew, they come and help the Moroccan, even if they don’t know him. All one can do is hit an attacker once or twice. Then one must run away, otherwise tens of Moroccans will soon surround you.

“When things become violent, Dutch bystanders do nothing. They just watch. Sometimes they even find it humorous. In the best case scenario, they will call the police when no one is watching them. They’ll never say, ‘Leave him alone,’ or anything like that.

(...)

“A few of my friends in Amsterdam have also been attacked by Moroccans. One of them rode his bicycle during the day with a yarmulke on. Four Moroccans cursed at him. He tried to continue riding, but they beat him and he had to be hospitalized. He was lucky and recuperated. Another friend who walked with a yarmulke was attacked with a knife, and his arm was gashed. He still has a scar.

Various objects were thrown into the courtyard of a synagogue in Garges-lès-Gonesse (near Paris) while a dozen kids were playing there. The objects included nail-studded boards and bowling-bowl size rocks and were thrown over the fence.

Adults quickly moved the kids inside. About 20 minutes later, a firecracker was thrown into the yard.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Like the Dönmeh, or crypto-Jews, of the Ottoman empire, Jewish intellectuals cannot profess their Zionism in public in Turkey, said Bali. There may be no legal obstacles to founding Zionist organizations in the country, but such a move would immediately attract the wrath of Islamists who would hurl accusations of dual loyalty, an inexcusable crime in the Turkish republic.

“A public intellectual can forget about his status if he defines himself as a Zionist,” Bali noted. “So people say one thing in public and act differently in private.”

Rabbi Albert Guigui, Chief Rabbi of Belgium, in an interview to La Libre: A [Jewish] boy cannot walk in the street in Belgium today with a kippah without risking being physically or verbally assaulted.

I have spoken to German Jewish audiences about wearing Yarmulkes and being proudly and identifiably Jewish in public (a reverse of the Yellow star of shame). Of all the messages I carried this one met with the most resistance. A rabbi told me before 400 people on Shabbos that I am unwittingly endangering people’s lives by encouraging them to wear Yarmulkes. The climate in Europe is too hostile, he told me.

Police guarding a synagogue in Paris (20th arrondissement) were threatened this past Saturday by five men armed with Kalashnikovs and a handgun. The men drove past the policemen and pretended to shoot at them.

Großröhrsdorf – (This community as well as the other communities mentioned here are in the state of Saxony, formerly in East Germany). The entry signs to Großröhrsdorf, Pulsnitz and Steina were completely damaged on Wednesday by unknown people who had smeared red and black paint. While on the border of the town of Großröhrsdorf an antisemitic inscription was sprayed and the symbols of the Star of David and a swastika were scrawled on a local panel

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Over 100 artists and intellectuals — including Judith Butler, Lucy Lippard, Chantal Mouffe, Walid Raad, Martha Rosler, and Gayatri Spivak —have signed on to a public letter calling on participants to withdraw from Creative Time’s traveling Living as Form exhibition on the grounds that it is currently showing at Israel's Technion, which plays a “central role in maintaining the unjust and illegal occupation of Palestine.”

Most of the signatories on the BDS letter are American or Canadian, but there are a few Europeans: Chantal Mouffe (Belgian political theorist), Brian Holmes (Swiss academic), Dario Azzellini (Italian academic) and Ariella Azoulay (formerly of Israel).

Greek lawmaker warned her colleagues that if the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party comes to power it would send her and her family to the crematoria because of her Jewish ancestry.

Anna Asimakopoulou, the spokesperson for the ruling New Democracy party, made the comments last week during a stormy debate in Parliament on lifting immunity from several jailed Golden Dawn leaders.

During the debate held June 4, Christos Pappas, the deputy leader of Golden Dawn, turned to Asimakopoulou and pointed out that she had an American-Jewish mother.

Pappas said he raised the issue to illustrate that the fact she had been allowed to shop in his store, which proved that Golden Dawn were not anti-Semitic, but only anti-Zionist.

Asimakopoulou reacted angrily to the comments, asking what kind of lawmaker raises the ethnic and religious backgrounds of other parliamentarians.

“If this man were in power, not only would my mother, myself and my son not be allowed to enter his shop, but they would put us on trains and send us to concentration camps before sending us to the crematoria,” she said.

This is the 5th attack reported in the past two weeks (here, here, here and here).

French police are looking into reports that a gang of youths tasered a Jewish teenager in central Paris.

The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, said it had contacted police based on reports in French Jewish media of the alleged assault, which according to the news site Alliance.fr happened on Tuesday on Paris’ iconic Place de La Republique square.

According to the report, a group of six black teenagers used an electric taser on a Jewish boy identified by Alliancefr.com only by his first name, Raphael. He was wearing a kippah and tzitzit and was attacked for his Jewish appearance in an apparent anti-Semitic assault, Alliancefr reported.

A European Commission official sent an expletive-filled and anti-Zionist email on Sunday to the rabbinic director of a pro-Israel organization following a newsletter he received from him.

“STOP f***ing writing me about your Zionist bullshit,” wrote Mattia Zilli, a project officer at the EC’s Research Executive Agency, in an email to Rabbi Ari Enkin of the Beit Shemesh-based United with Israel organization after receiving an online newsletter he’s been subscribed to since 2011.

In response to queries from the UWI and The Jerusalem Post, Zilli wrote that his email was written out of frustration over attempts to unsubscribe to the newsletter.

“My irritating tone in my emails was never intended against Israel, against any religion, or culture but merely against this constant receiving of emails in my professional inbox,” he wrote.

After investigating further, the organization noted that Zilli had subscribed to the UWI newsletter back in 2011, and in 2012 he signed a UWI petition against Iran’s nuclear program. Although it is possible that another individual had signed up with Zilli’s name and email address, Zilli had ample time to unsubscribe in a civilized fashion.

UWI also found an email from Zilli sent last week, in reaction to having received a newsletter with an article about the Fatah-Hamas unity government and several pieces about the Jewish holiday of Shavuot – in which he wrote: “Spare me your Zionist bulls..t.”

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' choice of new health minister has come under criticism by the local Jewish community. Samaras last week appointed Makis Voridis, a man accused of promoting anti-Semitic views and who considers France’s Jean-Marie Le Pen a mentor and friend, as new minister for health.

The 49-year-old Voridis ran for national elections in 2000 with Konstantinos Plevris, who later authored a 1,400-page book called 'Jews, the Whole Truth' in which he urged the Greeks to kill Jews. When Voridis’ election bid failed, in 2005 he merged his party into the LAOS party, whose leader, George Karatzaferis, once blamed the Jews for 9/11 during a speech in the Greek Parliament. Two years ago, Voridis was among several LAOS members who joined the conservative New Democracy party of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras after LAOS failed to qualify for Parliament amid the rise of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.

Russian adviser to Vladimir Putin, Sergei Markov, made headlines this weekend for pointing the finger at Sweden as one of the most "Russophobic" nations - rivalled only by Finland, Poland, and the Baltic states. On Monday several Swedish politicians dismissed his antics and said Markov doesn't have nearly the political clout he presumes.

"Anti-Semitism started the Second World War, and Russophobia can start a third," Markov told the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper this weekend. "Europe today looks upon Russians the same way as Jews were viewed before. Your goal is to destroy Russia. But you will destroy Europe instead."

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Rabbi Yosef Labkowski is a Chabad rabbi in Marseiile, and also works as a prison chaplin. He reports that according to a Jewish prison guard, the Muslim prisoners were very happy when they heard of the attack in Brussels and praised the 'bravery' of the terrorist. They think it's time for such an 'awakening' across the continent and in France in particular.

Rabbi Labkowski also says that last week two Jewish schools were photographed by Arab-looking men. When the teachers called the police, the men fled.

He says that many times people, mostly young Muslims, shout insults at him on the street, but that in some cases the local Muslims show him respect as he passes by.

Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal came to Europe looking for stories of everyday antisemitism. He started by asking Germans on the street what they thought of Jews. Most answered were benign. But a large minority expressed hateful opinions. One said: "I think they have influence all over the world. The Zionists... if you look at how America acts, it's a bit like an Israeli marionette.

Not far from Berlin he met a man who told him: "All the money in the world is in Jewish hands. They must be destroyed".

Later on in the clip he speaks to a former neo-Nazi musician. The man shows him how he sang on stage with an "Anti-Zionist" shirt. "Because that's the only way you can show on a shirt that you're against Jews".

Monday, June 9, 2014

I've written before on the difficulties of reporting on a general feeling of hate. Here's one example:

Lautaro Bejerman, a Jew who lives in Barcelona, says he doesn't walk around with a kippah, to prevent problems. He thinks the only reason he hasn't suffered from antisemitic incidents is because he's discrete.

He also says that while it's normal to see Muslims displaying religious symbols in Barcelona, it's not normal for Jews to do so.

Bejerman considers himself a liberal leftist, but he says that many leftists have a right-wing fascist streak in them and are anti-Semites, hiding under the umbrella of anti-Zionism.

A firebomb thrown into a former synagogue in central Romania caused minor damage, a local Jewish watchdog group said Tuesday.

The firebomb was aimed at the wooden part of the floor of the former synagogue of Sighisoara, the Center for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism in Romania said in a statement about the recent attack.

The building, which has been converted into a cultural center, is in proximity to the site of an earlier attack in Ploiesti, near Bucharest, where a local synagogue’s windows were shattered when vandals pelted them with stones, wrote the watchdog group’s director, Maximillian Marco Katz.

An anti-Semitic slogan, “death to Jews”, along with a swastika were daubed on a fence outside Sofia Central Synagogue on June 4 2014, the day this year that celebration of Shavuot began, the Shalom Organisation of the Jews in Bulgaria said.

An Israeli-Arab posted the following status on his Facebook: Insha'Allah [God willing] I will blow myself up in Azrieli [Tel-Aviv skyscraper] so as many Jews as possible die. I drink the blood of Jews. I'm Dracula."

It has been a bad week for democracy in Athens. All around this great Greek city, the politics of hate now lurk. On Friday I got a taste of it in the tiny Italian-style cafe I frequent off Syntagma Square.

It arrived in the form of two middle-aged men, both supporters of the neo-fascist Golden Dawn – and, by their own account, the holders of university degrees, well-travelled and well-informed. Over espressos, they began to engage in an animated discussion about all that is wrong with Greece.

(...)

Dismissing charges that Golden Dawn is a criminal gang masquerading as a political group, the second – a self-described government employee – said the far right was the best response yet to the great Jewish conspiracy of an interconnected banking system that has come with globalisation. "Let's not forget all the faggots and the Jews, the wankers who control the banks, the foreigners who are behind them, who came in and fucked Greece," he insisted. "The criminals who have governed us, who have robbed us of our future, of our dreams, need a big thwack."

(...)

"Who cares if six million Jews were exterminated?" asked the businessman back at the cafe, in a shocking endorsement of that reality. "I don't care if they were turned into soap. What I care about is the salary I have lost, the never-ending taxes I am forced to pay, the criminals who rule this country, the anger I carry inside."

Two Jewish kids (14 and 15 years old) were attacked on their way to the synagogue on the holiday of Shavuot. The two were with their grandfather when they were accosted by a man with a hatchet. The kids, who wore a kippah and were visibly Jewish, say their attacker was a North-African of about 25 years old. The man attacked them, but they managed to escape.

Azeddine Kbir Bounekoub, a Belgian Jihadist, wrote as follows on his Facebook: May Allah cause more youth to follow the example of those who committed the attack in the Jewish Museum. Martyrdom can be found not only in Syria but also in Belgium. Be a thorn in in the side of the enemies of Islam."

Bounekoub, a member of Sharia4Belgium, is currently fighting in Syria.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

In a letter to Swedish Minister for Education and Deputy Prime Minister, here Jan Björkland (pictured), the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed shock that “the Party of the Swedes (Svenskarnas Parti) is to exploit a law permitting party access to schools as part of a civic education curriculum which, ironically, was established to produce a new generation predicated upon tolerance and human rights.”

Samuels noted, “The Party of the Swedes is, reportedly, a cover for the former National Socialist Party of Sweden and continues to maintain a racist platform and discourse.”

The letter advised the Minister that, “apparently, this party is to begin its school campaign in Malmö – a city under a Wiesenthal Centre travel advisory due to the inflammatory rhetoric of its former Mayor, Ilmar Reepalu, that provoked anti-Semitic violence against the Jewish community.”

Italy’s Jewish community is taking legal action against a television talk show for running an interview this week with a right-wing extremist who extolled fascism.

Renzo Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, or UCEI, said in a statement that the group had lodged a formal legal complaint against the talk show, Le Iene, and also against Roberto Jonghi Lavarini of the far-right National Project movement.

Le Iene ran the interview with Lavarini late Wednesday night, calling him a “European Fascist.” Among other things, Lavarini praised the regime of Italy’s World War II fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as “a splendid era” during which, “aside from some healthy beatings with a truncheon and a few little drinks of castor oil, nothing ever happened.”

In his view, he said, Mussolini’s “only mistake was to be too good to his political opponents.” The six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, he said, died because the Nazis were “precise” and “well organized.”

In addition, he said there was an air of “secret services, lobbies and international interests” around last week’s attack in Brussels on the Jewish Museum of Belgium, which left four dead.

On May 27th, before Muslim terrorist Mehdi Nemmouche was arrested for the Brussels attack, Swiss Tariq Ramadan wrote on his Facebook as follows:

"The two tourists targeted in Brussels worked for the Israeli Secret Service according to Le Soir and other sources .... The government is not commenting. By chance. Is it anti-Semitism or a red herring to hide the true motives and attackers? I condemn the killing of innocents and all forms of racism without exception, but they must also stop taking us for fools."

It is true that the French media (as well as anti-Semitic sites) played around with the possibility that the two Israeli tourists were targeted for a 'good' reason. It was a targeted killing, not a run-of-the-mill terrorist attack against Jews.

The man who says he "condemns the killing of innocents and all forms of racism" bothered to strongly imply that this this attack did not kill innocents and had nothing to do with racism.

Since then, Ramadan has nothing further to say on the topic. It's easy to tell your followers an antisemitic attack might be a Mossad-related killing. More than 10,000 people 'liked' his conspiracy theory. It's harder to face the fact that a Muslim was responsible. For Ramadan, it's too hard.

Rabbi Tami Vero of Buda describes how he can't go with a kippah in the street without somebody saying something. "There's a Jew. Go to Israel. This is not your home." Every Friday night skinheads show up at the synagogue to curse and shout.

Rabbi Robert Frolich, rabbi of the Great Synagogue in Budapest, says that "dirty Jew" has become a common curse in Hungary.

Zsuzsa Fritz, director of the Balint Jewish Community Center, says that Hungarian antisemitism is political ,and Rabbi Frolich adds that Prime Minister Orban is not antisemitic, but he's a politician. He wants to appeal to the voters.

A Jewish man was attacked by three men in Creteil, next to Paris, on May 30. The attackers accused their victim of calling the police on them the previous night. They also hurled antisemitic slurs at him, including “you Jews are all the same” and “dirty Jew.” They also told him that they knew where he and his wife and children lived.

The victim broke his elbow and injured his nose. Two men were later arrested by the police.

Ever since I started this blog, I've been wondering if it was serving its purpose. It sounds simple: spotlight antisemitism in Europe. But in practice I feel that every day I miss the point.

Antisemitism in Europe is not graffiti on a wall. Nobody really cares if a bored 12 year old (or a 22 year old) writes "Jews out" or breaks a few gravestones. Nobody's happy about it, but it doesn't affect day-to-day Jewish life. We all know that most people and most governments oppose such things. If they catch the perpetrator, he'll be punished.

But let's take a look at the stories from the past couple of weeks:

In Belgium, a Muslim entered a Jewish Museum and shot to death four people. Various European leaders denounced this heinous crime.

In both cases, the only people who took this badly were the Jews. Nobody else bothered denouncing it, because nobody else thinks it's bad.

The European Left and Right talk about their love for the Jews, and how they want to prevent another Holocaust. But then they turn around and pass laws denying Jews the right to live a Jewish life in Europe. Top people in government tell the Jews that if you want to live in Europe you've got to drop all those barbaric rituals such as circumcision and kosher slaughter. You don't really need to wear a kippah or cover your hair. That's passe.

A journalist can write an article denying Jews the right to their own homeland, accusing them of ethnically cleaning Palestinians, and it will be published in top newspapers around the Western world.

An academic can boycott his Israeli colleagues, just because they're Israeli.

It's not antisemitism, it's anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel.

Anti-racism activists take over Holocaust memorials to accuse Israel of committing a new Holocaust, this time time against the Palestinians.

It's not antisemitism, it's human rights.

A man like Dieudonné can become a top comedian in France with a show which accuses the Jews of committing genocide and of crying 'Holocaust' whenever somebody criticizes them for it.

It's not antisemitism, it's comedy and it's anti-system.

But the problem is that all those "it's not antisemitisms" are exactly what leads Jews today to fear for their future in Europe. It's not a Muslim who gets hold of a gun, it's the Europeans who then pretend it's not a real problem, but an 'incident'.

According to the recent ADL poll, the United Kingdom is one of the least antisemitic countries in Europe. And yet when I speak to British Jews, they do not feel safe. They are afraid of the day when they'll have to run.

Are the statistics contradicting reality? No.

The amount of British people who hold 'traditional' antisemitic views is really small. But British Jews are picking up on a different type of antisemitism. One that is not measured by the amount of vandalism on walls or how many people believe Jews control the world.

It's not the antisemitism that will bring about the next Holocaust, but it's the antisemitism that will wipe out Jewish life in Europe. It's that antisemitism that I want to highlight, but it is very difficult. It's not an incident here or there. It's a hostile atmosphere, a fear of expressing yourself as a Jew.

‘’We are in a state of war. The terrorist is still at large. When you see the video images of the shooter, it’s really frightening because he might act again’’ says Brigitte Weberman, a consultant who has a weekly column in the local Jewish radio.

‘’I am worried for my children who go to Jewish school and youth movements. When I bring them to school, I am scared. When my daughter tells me that she goes out with friends, I am scared. I asked my children not to wear a Magen David…’’

Two synagogues were attacked by arson attacks this past Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath). In a synaoguge in Petah-Tikva (next to Tel Aviv), the ark holding the Torah scrolls was set aflame, but nothing was damaged.

At a rest-stop on Highway 6, not far from the Arab town of Baqa al-Gharbiyye, a small synagogue was completely burnt down, including all the holy books inside (see picture above).

If she were talking about British Jews, this would be antisemitic. Since she's talking about Jews in general and Israeli Jews in particular, it's just anti-Zionist.

British columnist Lauren Booth, the sister-in-law of Tony Blair, former UK Prime Minister and current Quartet Representative to Jerusalem, writes for The Mail on Sunday and works for Iran’s pro-regime satellite news channel, Press TV.

(...)

On Thursday, Honest Reporting flagged her Twitter exchange with Canadian Ryan Bellerose, an advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples, including Jews, he pointed out.

Bellerose wrote: “I believe in civil and human rights for all people, but I advocate for indigenous rights, the Jews are an indigenous people.”

Booth responded, and included Honest Reporting’s handle in her tweet: “you’re right they are indigenous to Eastern Europe.”

A Dutch municipality is facing criticism for describing Jerusalem, Nazareth and Tiberias as “cities in Palestine.”

Likkud Netherlands, a local association, published on its website Friday an article which carried a screen capture photo from Google Street View of the street sign of Tiberias Path in the city of Eindhoven with the description, in which Likkud Nederland accused the municipality of “wiping Israel off the map.”

The problem is not so much Eindhoven, but the fact that the Palestinians have taken over the Roman historic name for the Land of Israel. In the picture above (via Google Earth), we can easily see Zion Street - mountain in Palestine (today Israel), but also Nebo Street - mountain in Palestine (today Jordan). Obviously Eindhoven is not wiping Jordan off the map.

Nazareth is in Palestine (ie, the Land of Israel), just like Hebron, Shechem and other cities and sites in this neighborhood.